ABSTRACT
Benin religion presents an interesting case study for the questions raised at the “Beyond ‘Primitivism’: Indigenous Religious Traditions and Modernity” conference.1 The conference enquired about the nature of non-Western contact with world religions, apart from major Eastern religions – and the consequences of often abrupt and violent encounters with the West – and the responses and the effect both parties, or more, have on each other in a complex interaction between indigenous religious traditions and modernity. Benin offers several reasons for presentation as a case study. It suggests some answers as to why some traditions continue to form the basis of ethnic and even national identity in a modern nation-state, and why some religions resist change and others do not. Benin illuminates how some structures of indigenous tradition such as myths, symbols, and institutions both respond to contact with foreign traditions and shed light on their reaction to major world religions such as Christianity, Islam, and others.
